Santa, a.k.a. Scott Calvin, is faced with double-duty: how to keep his new family happy and how to stop Jack Frost from taking over Christmas.
Now that Santa Claus/Scott Calvin and Mrs. Claus/Carol Newman Calvin have the North Pole running smoothly, the Counsel of Legendary Figures has called an emergency meeting on Christmas Eve. The evil Jack Frost has been making trouble, looking to take over the holiday. So he launches a plan to sabotage the toy factory and compel Scott to invoke the little-known Escape Clause and wish he'd never become Santa.—Anthony Pereyra {[email protected]}
Santa Claus has problems: it's a few days before Christmas and production lags, Mrs. Claus is about to give birth to their first child and wants family time, and Jack Frost (tired of second billing) is on probation under his supervision. He tries to support Carol by bringing her parents, Bud and Sylvia, to the North Pole (to preserve his secret, they must think it's Canada). He also brings his ex-wife, Laura, her husband, Neil, and their daughter, Lucy. Inside the toy factory, Jack makes mischief and hatches a plan to become Santa. With Santa juggling so many snow globes, something is bound to go wrong. But if things get too difficult, he can always exercise his option to invoke the Escape Clause. Will he?—<[email protected]>
With Christmas quickly on the way, Santa Claus is faced with one problem after another. Production on the toy line is going down the drain. Mrs. Claus is about to give birth to their first child, and he plans to spend time with her, her parents, Bud and Sylvia (who think he is a toymaker in Canada), his ex-wife Laura, her husband, Neil and their daughter, Lucy. On the other hand, trouble is brewing when the malicious Jack Frost starts causing mayhem by sabotaging the factory. And if things are way too out of line, there's always the option to using the Escape Clause.—Blazer346
As another Christmas approaches, Santa Claus does his best to get ready despite having to impress the in-laws and avoid a sinister plot that threatens him. Without him knowing what the threat is, his whole life could be turned upside down before he knows it.—RECB3
Twelve years have passed since Scott Calvin took on the mantle of Santa Claus. He is now married to Carol Newman, who is now a teacher in the North Pole.[a] On Christmas Eve, she tells a group of young elves a story from her life with Scott while expecting their first child. Scott invites his in-laws, Sylvia and Bud Newman, to the North Pole, along with Scott's ex-wife Laura, her husband Neil, their daughter Lucy, and Scott's son Charlie. Meanwhile, he is summoned to a meeting of the Council of Legendary Figures, consisting of Mother Nature, Father Time, the Easter Bunny, Cupid, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman, concerning the behavior of Jack Frost, who is jealous that he has no holiday or special occasion in his honor. Because he has been promoting himself during the Christmas season, Mother Nature suggests sanctions against him. As Scott is attempting to get the in-laws to come without revealing that he is Santa, Jack Frost negotiates a light sentence of community service at the North Pole, helping Scott and the elves put up various Canadian-themed paraphernalia, as Carol's parents believe Scott is a toy maker in Canada; Scott consents.
However, Frost's ultimate goal is to trick Scott into renouncing his position as Santa and taking it for himself. After he persuades the Head Elf Curtis to tell him about the "Escape Clause", Frost sneaks into The Hall of Snow Globes and steals Scott's snow globe containing him as Santa. If Scott holds the globe and wishes to have "never been Santa at all," he will go back in time and undo his career as Santa. When Lucy discovers this, Frost freezes her parents and locks her in a closet. He then orchestrates several accidents in order to pressurize Scott to the point where he thinks about resigning to make things better.
This causes Frost to trick Scott into invoking the Escape Clause and both are sent to Scott's front yard in 1994, when Scott caused the original Santa to fall off his roof and had to replace him. Frost causes the original Santa to fall off the roof and grabs Santa's coat before Scott can. Scott is sent to an alternate present, where he has been CEO of his old company for the last twelve years and business takes priority over family. Scott also learns that Laura and Neil divorced and Carol moved away years ago.
Scott goes to find Lucy and Neil, who are vacationing at the North Pole, which is now a theme park opened to visitors from around the world, where Scott learns that Frost has discontinued delivering presents and has instead focused solely on the commercialization of Christmas, the elves are miserable, the reindeer are confined to a petting zoo, and parents can pay for their kids to be placed on the nice list. Scott finds Lucy and questions Neil about Laura; he states that Scott's workaholic absence in Charlie's life put all the pressure on Neil, and Charlie didn't want him to be his father, causing the divorce between him and Laura.
Scott confronts Frost and causes a distraction and convinces Lucy to steal Frost's snow globe for him. Lucy throws the snow globe to Scott, but Frost catches it. Scott plays a recording of Frost saying "I wish I'd never been Santa at all" out of context from a novelty North Pole pen given to him by Curtis earlier, invoking the Escape Clause, sending both Scott and Frost back to 1994. Scott restrains Jack long enough to let his 1994 counterpart to put on the coat, making him Santa Claus again, sending both back to the present in the original time line.
Scott reconciles with his family and Jack is arrested by elf police. He reveals he cannot unfreeze his victims unless he unfreezes himself, something he says he'll never do. Scott convinces Lucy via a snow globe he had given her earlier of her warmly hugging a snowman, to give Frost a "warm hug" to unfreeze and reform him. It works as Laura and Neil unfreeze and Frost becomes a new person. The "Canada" ruse is dropped and Scott appears as Santa to Carol's parents. With two hours remaining before Santa must leave for his Christmas deliveries, Carol goes into labor.
Months later, while Carol is telling the tale to her students, Scott walks in to reveal their son, Buddy Claus.